Time to think…about your future

“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.”

Epictetus, Enchiridion.

It is a part of the human condition to spend time trying to predict our future, or dwelling on the past in the hope that by thinking about what we should have done will somehow change the actual end result. The latter, known as rumination, has been shown to be a factor influencing the experience of depression, especially when negative and painful emotions are involved: we re-live the moment.

Fear of the future – of experiencing negative consequences or of missing out on pleasurable ones (FOMO) – can draw us in too.

Living in the past or the present takes us away from living in the now. Go ahead and make your list of intended outcomes, and learn from your past experiences, but quickly turn your attention to what is happening right now, and to the part you are playing in the flow of events.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.